Egypt arrests Iranian diplomat for spying

Egyptian security authorities arrested on Saturday an Iranian diplomat who worked in the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo on charges of spying.

The Egyptian Intelligence caught Sayyed Kassem al-Husseini in al-Mohandssen district of Cairo, the official Al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

The report mentioned that Husseini was gathering and sending to Tehran economic, political and military intelligence of Egypt right after the demonstration, along with that of other Gulf nations and Yemen.

He was aspect of a spy network that was trying to recruit agents in Arab Gulf countries, in accordance with Egyptian security official.

He was referred for the state security prosecution to become questioned to know if he has other partners, and also the result will likely be announced inside days, the newspaper reported.

Egypt and Iran have had no standard diplomatic relation seeing that 1979 when Cairo signed the peace treaty with Israel and offered asylum to Iran's deposed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Just after 30 years of strained ties, Egyptian and Iranian officials voiced their hope for normalization and enhancing long-frozen relations in between the two Islamic nations immediately after the anti- government protests which ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule in Egypt.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting with the Non-Aligned Movement held in Indonesia and discussed the possibility of exchanging ambassadors with Iran.

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